Havre de Grace retired, would have had NY presence

If Havre de Grace had stayed healthy, the defending Horse of the Year may very well have become New York’s horse.

However, it was not be as the 5-year-old mare was retired Monday after an injury was found in her right front ankle.

Rick Porter, who owns Fox Hill Farms, which ran Havre de Grace in her 16 race career (nine wins, four seconds, two thirds), said he had hoped to keep Havre de Grace at Belmont and Saratoga this summer after a scheduled start next Friday in the La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs.

“Oh yes,” Porter said by cellphone Monday afternoon. “I definitely wanted to run in the Woodward (a race Havre de Grace won last year) and we were going to nominate for the Whitney and see what happened there. We planned on leaving her in New York until the Breeders’ Cup.”

Havre de Grace had some swelling in her right ankle after a breeze at Churchill Downs on Sunday and was sent to the Rood & Riddle Clinic in Lexington Monday where she had surgery.

She was found to have an injury in the lateral ligament that would take over a year to fully heal, Porter said.

“It just would not make a lot of sense bringing her back as a 6-year-old next May,” Porter said. “So, I really didn’t have much of a choice but to retire her. This is a very sad thing for me.”